Eliot Engel: “This was a bill that was put together by the Republicans and jammed down the throats of the entire Congress. We were in…”

“This was a bill that was put together by the Republicans and jammed down the throats of the entire Congress. We were in committee last week until one o'clock in the morning, and every single Democratic amendment was voted down on virtually a party line vote. This is not the way to craft an energy bill for America. We need the talents of all the Members of the House in both parties to come together for the American people. I am sorely disappointed that we are ignoring the underlying problem to national security, which is oil. There is nothing in this bill that reduces our consumption of oil. There is a lot of talking about drilling and production, but very little about conservation. Rather than stimulating research and development into renewable generation, we continue to cede the development of alternative energy technology to Europe and Japan. Whereas once we were the leaders in exporting renewable technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, the U.S. now lags behind.”